1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air cleaner mounted on an intake system of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, an air cleaner mounted on an intake system of a vehicle has a function of eliminating dust in air flowing into a combustion chamber thereby minimizing abrasion of a cylinder.
A dust filtering efficiency of the air cleaner is determined by an element having a pore size 40-100 .mu..
The dust filtering efficiency of the element should be above 99% to be used as the air cleaner for the vehicle. In this case, since an intake resistance occurs, an intake sectional area is designed to reduced to decrease the air intake resistance.
Since the element is designed to interrupt the dust in air not to be introduced in the combustion chamber, the dust is collected at an air intake side.
Accordingly, if a volume of the collected dust increases, the air can not be sufficiently supplied into the combustion chamber since intake resistance is generated.
In this case, since the element should be replaced, the air cleaner assembly is designed such that the element can be replaced by a new element.
FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional air cleaner assembly, in which the assembly includes an air cleaner body fixed to a car body by bolts and an air cleaner cover 4 removably connected with an upper part of the air cleaner body 2 by bolts.
An element 6 is disposed at the inner side of each air cleaner body 2 and the air cleaner cover 4.
The air cleaner body 2 is provided with an air duct on its lower part so that the air flowing into the air cleaner body passes through the element 6. The air passing through the element 6 is designed to flow into a surge tank (not shown) through an intake hose connected to the air cleaner cover 4.
Both ends of the intake hose are connected to the surge tank and the air cleaner cover 4 by clamps 12, respectively.
In the conventional air cleaner assembly as described above, the air cleaner body 2 and the air cleaner cover 4 should be disassembled by disengaging the bolts to replace or clean up the element, and the intake hose 10 should be separated to separate the air cleaner cover 4 and the air cleaner body 2 by disengaging the clamps 12.
Accordingly, it takes much time to replace the element and the number of component parts is great because of the bolts to connect the air cleaner cover and the air cleaner body and a boss for engaging the bolts.
Further, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,861,359, 4,930,472 5,039,323 and 5,120,334 disclose the air cleaner for an internal combustion engine.
All of the patents have a structure that the air cleaner and the air cleaner cover are separated from each other, and thus they should be separated to replace or clean the element.